epilogue

American  

[ep-uh-lawg, -log] / ˈɛp əˌlɔg, -ˌlɒg /

Rarely epilog

noun

1. a usually short section appended to the conclusion of a book or film.

   The novel ends rather grimly, but the epilogue reveals that most of the characters go on to find fulfillment.

2. a later event that illuminates or reinforces the significance of an earlier set of events.

   The sad life of Tasso, the last great poet of the Italian Renaissance, was a fitting epilogue to the age, whose genius also declined into decadence.

3. a speech, usually in verse, delivered by one of the actors after the conclusion of a play.

4. the actor who delivers a play’s epilogue.

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epilogue British  

/ ɪˈpɪlədʒɪst, ˈɛpɪˌlɒɡ /

noun

1. 1. a speech, usually in verse, addressed to the audience by an actor at the end of a play

   2. the actor speaking this

2. a short postscript to any literary work, such as a brief description of the fates of the characters in a novel

3. (esp formerly) the concluding programme of the day on a radio or television station, often having a religious content

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Other Word Forms

• epilogist noun

Etymology

Origin of epilogue

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English epiloge, from Latin epilogus, from Greek epílogos “conclusion of a speech,” equivalent to epi- epi- + lógos “word”

Explanation

If you like to read the end of a book first, then maybe the epilogue is for you. The epilogue is a short piece that wraps up the end of a story. The noun epilogue can also refer to the short speech at the end of a play that one of the characters speaks directly to the audience. In Shakespeare's play The Tempest, the epilogue is a 20-line monologue spoken by Prospero. Epilogue comes from the Greek word epilogus meaning the conclusion of a speech.

Example Sentences

For his staging of the music from Prokofiev’s epilogue, Mr. Millepied makes much of the fluorescent light tubes that are part of Mr. Couture’s design.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 9, 2026

And you can expect more such details to surface as we finally get the Succession epilogue its fans have pined for, with a Tom Wambsgans type in charge.

From Slate • Feb. 4, 2026

In the end, Rountree wrote a short series on variations on two themes he extracted from the sketches that serve as an epilogue to the “MASS” suite.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 10, 2025

An epilogue explains that Kerr paved the way for MMA to become a much bigger sport, but this seems like a weak rationale for a picture that seems to have little reason to exist.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 2, 2025

A brilliant example of this occurs as the epilogue of Heinrich Biber’s devotional cycle of sixteen solo violin sonatas known as the ‘Rosary’ or ‘Mystery’ sonatas, composed in 1676.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

Related Words

• afterword
• coda
• postscript
• summation